Rand Paul is right, Obama is wrong

Congress can’t pass a bill raising taxes on the top 2%, but by God it can still get a bill through to permit spying on American citizens.  By a vote of 73-23, the Senate adopted legislation, supported by intelligence agencies and President Obama, to collect electronic data inside the U.S. without obtaining a warrant.  The House approved the bill last September on a 301-118 vote.  The overall policy is authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

Here’s what Senator Paul said:  “The Fourth Amendment was written in a different time and a different age, but its necessity and its truth are timeless.  Over the past few decades our right to privacy has been eroded.  We have become lazy and haphazard in our vigilance.  Digital records seem to get less protection than paper records.”  

The Senate bill was opposed by 19 Democrats, 3 Republicans, and one independent.  The New York Times buried the article about the bill on page 12 of Saturday’s paper.

Reasonable suggestions

The Times News today printed a letter from Towamensing Township resident George White headlined “It’s Time to Act.”  Mr. White noted that there was no reason for the average citizen to own assault or automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

Mr. White had a number of reasonable suggestions:

• ban the purchase of assault and automatic weapons.
• stringent background checks for all gun purchases.
• trigger locks on all guns.
• responsibility of gun owners for their guns.  If your gun is used in a shooting, you are an accessory to the crime.

Those are four good suggestions.  None of them take away hunting rifles, shotguns, or pistols.  Unfortunately, the N.R.A., while it pretends to represent hunters like Mr. White and me, actually represents gun manufacturers and dealers.  

Some of its stands make no sense whatsoever.  Let me give you just one more example of the N.R.A.’s craziness.  Lead bullets used in hunting enter the food chain.  If an animal is wounded and dies, scavengers often ingest the bullets.  Pellets used in waterfowl hunting fall into bays and estuaries and pollute the environment.  Alternatives to lead ammo have been available for years.  The N.R.A. opposes all efforts to make lead ammo illegal. 

Sending a message to Lou Barletta

Fifteen people participated in a “press event” in Jim Thorpe today.  We carried signs that said “No Tax Increase for the Middle Class” and “Middle Class Over Millionaires” and “No Tax Hike for the Working Class.”  One of the posters pointed out that if we go over the “Fiscal Cliff,” the average annual tax bill will increase by about $2200.

Our congressman and Tea Party supporter, Lou Barletta, has been AWOL on the whole issue.  During his first two years in Congress, he represented the wealthy segment of American society very well.  The rest of us--not so much.

The event was covered by the Times News and Channel 13.  The organizers were Linda Christman of the CCDC, Mike Morrill of Keystone Progress, and Terry Whiteman, the president of the Carbon County Labor Chapter.  

It was fun to twist Barletta’s tail, but I don’t think he will change his behavior.  The only way to deal with a a representative who puts his ideology ahead of the national interest is to vote him out of office. 

Firing back at the N.R.A.

In my last posting I noted that I thought that the N.R.A. executive V.P. Wayne LaPierre had a point when he criticized violent video games.  He should have also mentioned that the gun manufacturers and the game producers have a symbiotic relationship.  Electronic Arts, the company that makes Medal of Honor Warfighter and similar games, for a time actually offered a link to catalogs of the type of weapons used in the games.  Real weapons are used as models for the games.  (See today’s New York Times, p. 26, “The Gun-Game Complex”).

And just in case you need one, here is another reason to dislike the N.R.A.  In 2004 the National Research Council released a report entitled “Firearms and Violence.”  The conclusion was somewhat wishy-washy, but called for a program of data collection and research to establish which policies worked best to prevent gun violence.

Since 2004, however, the N.R.A. has been largely successful in blocking funding for research on weapon-related injuries and deaths.  I am sure the reason is because the N.R.A. is worried that the researchers will find a clear link between lax gun laws and the death rate from guns.  Incidentally, the states with the most restrictive laws, such as New York and California, do have a lower percentage of death by firearms than states like Texas and Alabama.

The N.R.A. has a point

Wayne LaPierre of the N.R.A. made some embarrassingly stupid comments after the school massacre in Newtown, and I will address some of those tomorrow night.  One of his statements, however, resonates with me.  He criticized violent video games.

Gamers reacted in the same way that the N.R.A. does when liberals push for regulating gun show purchases.  They got all defensive and denied that video games have any effect on behavior.  Here’s Chris Suellentrop, who writes about games for the New York Times:  “There’s no evidence that video games cause--or even correlate with--violence, and that can’t be stated often enough.”  

Really?  That sounds a lot like: “There’s no evidence that stronger gun regulations will reduce violent crime.”

When Hitler’s favorite director, Leni Riefenstahl, made films with fleeing Jews interspersed with running rats, you think that didn’t have an effect?  Look at “Birth of a Nation” and the resurgence of the Klan.  Look at the way gangsters tried to emulate the characters in the Godfather movies.  And those were films.  In video games, you do the shooting, and you create the blood and flying body parts. 

I’ve read that the average American boy plays video games--many of them incredibly bloody and violent--an average of 10,000 hours by the time he is 18.  That has to have an effect.

Finally, if what we watch doesn’t affect us, somebody better explain to the ad agencies why those Superbowl commercials and those political ads by the Obama campaign were such a waste of money.

Keep istm in Christmas

Because otherwise it would be Chras.  But seriously folks, atheists, at least the ones I know, celebrate the holidays.  We might not go to synagogue or mosque or midnight mass, but the giving of gifts, the general happiness that goes with the season--too good to pass up just because one doesn’t believe in the existence of some higher being.

So, to all my readers, have a great holiday, no matter what your religion or lack thereof.

Another Times News debacle

A letter appeared in the Times News from me on Saturday.  The letter noted that U.S. government savings bonds were no longer sold at banks, and that you had to buy them on the internet.  I pointed out that the internet was often unfamiliar to elderly people, and that some people, like me, did not have credit cards.  The letter was addressed to Rep. Barletta and asked for his help to get the policy changed.

I also sent copies to the Times News and the Hazleton Standard Speaker. The letter clearly was addressed to Barletta, not “Dear Editor.”  I did not ask the Times News for help, as the letter in the paper implied.  

The contrast of the Times News with the Standard Speaker was stark.  A reporter from that paper called the  U.S. Treasury Department.  He found out that you really don’t need a credit card.  You can purchase savings bonds by using that long number that is on every check. After getting that information, he called me to tell me the news.  

The Standard Speaker is a real newspaper.  I so wish it was available down here.

The N.R.A., shill for the arms companies

When I was picketing the Romney rally in Weatherly earlier this year, I was asked if I were a Communist.  The question surprised me, and I answered no, but then I said I thought Marxist analysis can explain a good deal of politics.  My interrogator asked me to explain, and I told him you could sum it up in three words, “Follow the money.”

Yesterday I read in a New York Times editorial that the gun industry is a major contributor to the N.R.A.  Since the N.R.A. does not publish a list of donors, the best estimate is between $14.7 and $39.9 million since 2005.  Even that high figure might be conservative. 

Since a large majority of N.R.A. members support background checks for gun purchasers at gun shows, you’d think the organization might reconsider its stand.  No way.  There’s money to be made.  If a few kids get killed here or there, so be it.

Municipal bonds, cont.

I suppose I should restrict my postings to topics about which I’m an expert, but if I did that, I wouldn’t be posting very often.  I certainly am not an expert on financial matters.  To me a good investment is a passbook savings account.  

One of my alert readers, who is also a financial advisor, had some comments on the last posting on municipal bonds, where I basically said--let’s tax the interest.  He sent me a long email, and I thought it was worth reprinting.  He did ask that his name not be used.  Here’s what he said, slightly edited:

As much as I usually agree with your posts, this one is way off base.  

While it's true that munis benefit higher net worth investors, I believe that they actually help increase the quality of life for people of average means more.  Let me explain.  When I set up a portfolio for someone when they are retired there are a number of factors to be taken into account.  Not least among them is how their income will effect their eligibility for government programs.  If people have too much investment income in addition to social security and their pensions, then they are usually denied the programs that most seniors qualify for.  This generally serves to decrease their real income by thousands of dollars per year while someone that made only a little less enjoys all of the government programs.  The only real tool at people's disposal to combat that is muni bonds.  It serves to cut their investment income to nothing while also decreasing their actual return by 50-75%.  Its not as if muni bonds are paying some great interest rate...they're not.  

To your point on Munis costing $10,000 to purchase.  That is also incorrect.  The only "people" that buy individual munis are institutional investors such as trust departments and pension funds.  The average investor will tend to buy a muni bond fund.  This gives them diversification and also keeps costs down since the fund does all of the trading for them and allows them to avoid costly commission charges while still being paid a monthly income.  The minimum investment amount for a muni bond fund is $250 for IRA/401k money and $1000 for regular money.  

That being said I only use them for most clients if they have a tax issues since the return stinks.  For most people it’s more beneficial to make 6-7% on a taxable investment rather than 1-2% on munis.

I'm sure you have heard all about the effects that munis have on municipalities and school districts, etc.  

If your touch the tax savings on munis, then borrowing rates for local government entities will likely at least double which will cause large tax increases and municipal bankruptcies which we can't afford.

My only comment is that I didn’t think that municipal bonds would affect municipal bankruptcies, since they are not issued for day-to-day municipal budgets.  I’m not even sure about that.

In the meantime, the Mayan calendar was wrong.  Or did I get the date wrong, and the world ends tomorrow?  Wait and see.

Municipal bonds

The Business Section of today’s New York Times had an article about a possible elimination of the tax exemption currently granted to the interest accrued on municipal bonds.  Under current I.R.S. law, if you by municipal bonds, the interest you get is not taxed at the federal level.  Evidently, President Obama and Speaker Boehner are close  to agreeing that the exemption should be eliminated, at least for the taxpayers in the top brackets.

I  called Lois, a friend of mine who is a tax consultant, and asked her to explain this whole issue.  Lois said that--for example--if you buy a Pennsylvania municipal bond, you are exempt from federal and Pennsylvania income taxes, so you need to figure out whether the lower tax rates will offset the lower interest rates you get on the municipal bonds.  Obviously the agencies issuing municipal bonds would like to continue the exemption, because they can keep their interest payments at a lower level than private bonds.

Here’s the kicker.  Lois told me that generally the minimum you need to invest in municipal bonds is $10,000.  I don’t know how many of my readers have $10,000 sitting around to invest, but I have a feeling it is a small number.  Here we have a debate on a tax policy, that, let’s face it, involves only a small percentage of Americans.  The amount at stake is approximately $32 billion.

My partner, who reads my postings for typos, vehemently disagrees with this message.  As a former local government official, she points out that the average taxpayer benefits from the sale of municipal bonds.  Bridges are built, flood control dikes are erected, infrastructure improvements are made because people are willing to invest in municipal bonds even though the interest rates are lower, because the interest is tax exempt.   My response is, yeah, but the rich are the people who still benefit.  She is looking at the infrastructure improvement.  I’m looking at the class warfare aspect.

Rick Perry, always a jerk

For many years I kept a file of strange and unusual news stories.  I called it my “trivia” file.  I’ve decided to chuck it, but as I was going through it, a small blurb from the Feb. 10, 1991, San Jose Mercury News caught my eye.  Here it is, in its entirety:

When a Republican candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner tried to hurt his opponent in August by claiming that the Democrat had visited “Jane Fonda’s home,” columnist Molly Ivins asked for an explanation.  GOP spokesman Rick Perry said the Democrat had visited “Los Angeles several times,” pointing out that he thought Los Angeles is where Jane Fonda lives.

Rick Perry was a front runner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States earlier this year.  Truly amazing.

"Zero Dark Thirty"

“Zero Dark Thirty,” a movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow about the killing of Osama bin Laden, opens in a few theaters in New York and L.A. tomorrow and in theaters across the nation in January.  The film contains graphic and horrifying scenes of Americans torturing prisoners, and, although it is somewhat ambiguous, seems to imply that at least some of the information used to locate Osama may have been found because of torture.

I don’t plan to see the film.  I am bothered by three things.  First, from what I have read, American agents did not find Osama because of information gleaned in torture sessions.  They found him the old-fashioned way through good intelligence work.

Secondly, if we had to use torture to find Osama bin Laden, then finding him was not worth it.  In fact, I’m not sure spending so much effort was even worth it.  Ask yourself, is the U.S. safer now that he is dead?  Is the war in Afghanistan going so much better?  Did Iran quit working on nuclear weapons?  Did the TSA shut down its airport security operation?  I’ll admit that it felt good to get the bastard, but if we had to abandon all of our ideals to do that, it was too high a cost.

Finally, and this is what bothers me the most about the film, every time torture is depicted, we become hardened to it.  Every time a show like the Fox drama “Twenty-four” is run, more Americans begin to accept that this is something our country and its representatives do.  Not everyone in the audience will be sickened by those scenes.  Some of the viewers will enjoy them.  We don’t want torture to become the new norm.  I’m afraid for millions of Americans, it already has.

Florida to English majors: Drop Dead

Rick Scott, Governor of Florida, wants the 12 state universities to freeze tuition rates in certain majors like engineering or biotechnology.  He is also calling on the state’s 28 colleges to offer certain degrees for $10,000 based on the needs of society and whether or not the students find jobs after graduation.  It is fairly obvious that among the majors not needed are history or English or--dare I say it--political science.

This whole idea may be something of a gimmick.  According to Lizette Alvarez in the December 12 New York Times, “State spending per student declined 26% from 2006 to 2011....”  Last year Florida cut higher ed by another $300 million.  Governor Scott may simply be trying to divert attention from his past policies.

Even if he is sincere, what should government do to steer students in certain directions?  At San Jose State engineering and computer sciences were far more popular majors than English or political science because that’s where the jobs were.  It was my experience that people who majored in political philosophy or environmental studies were the kind of people who had other interests besides making money.  

Or it may have been because political science majors never really got algebra or calculus.  I speak from personal experience here.

Dates for your 2013 calendar

Saturday, January 19:  The Democratic Information Center will hold a grand opening at 2 p.m.  The D.I.C. is located at 110 South Main Street in Lehighton, in the same location as the former Carbon County Democratic Headquarters. Refreshments will be served.

Saturday, February 9:  We are kicking off our first voter registration drive in downtown Lehighton.  Canvassers will meet at 9:30 a.m. at the Democratic Information Center for training and assignment of turfs.  We are planning one registration canvass each month; our second drive will be in Beaver Meadows at a date to be announced.

Predictions

In the wake of the massacre of the Connecticut children, some of whom were the age of our grandson, I predict three things:

1.  gun stores will report a rush on handgun purchases by people who are fearful that sales of such weapons may be restricted.

2.  no meaningful legislation related to handguns or assault rifles will be passed.

3.  another mass killing will take place within the next six months.  But we know the drill, don’t we?  The candles, the flowers, the vigils, the grief counselors, the interviews, the somber tones of the reporters.  I’m sick of it.

Where do Republicans go?

Before the November election my sister-in-law Jeannine told us, “If Romney wins, we’re moving to Canada.”  When Sandra and I were canvassing in Union Hill, we met a woman who told us, “If Romney wins, I’m moving to Canada.”

People have been moving to Canada since the American Revolution, when thousands of Tories took refuge there.  It was a popular destination during the Vietnam War, when the Flying Burrito Brothers sang “Well I’m headed for the nearest foreign border, Vancouver may be just my kind of town.”

During the George W. Bush administration, the number of Americans who took up permanent residence in Canada jumped from 5,800 in 2000 to 11,200 in 2008.  (I took those figures from an article by John Ortved in the New York Times, Nov. 4, 2012.)  

So where do the Republicans go now that Obama has won?  Although Canada has swung to the right in recent years, the country still has socialized medicine and strict rules on guns.  And while Rush Limbaugh threatened to move to Costa Rica if Obamacare passed, he should know that Costa Rica is a leader in environmental protection.  Given Republican attitudes on Latinos, Mexico and the rest of Latin America are out of the question.

I’ve got it!  They can all move to the Cayman Islands.  They can enjoy the sun and play with their money.  The sooner the better.

Framing the Debate

In his book Don’t Think of an Elephant, George Lakoff discusses the importance of “framing” a political debate.  He notes that conservatives have become very good at defining issues using their terms.  Here’s an example.  Late term abortions are described as “partial birth abortions.”  It sounds as though the woman is being aborted while giving birth.  That is not how late term abortions work, but that is now how they are now defined in the public mind.

Sometimes the framing device doesn’t quite succeed.  Calling the rich people who are getting tax cuts “jobs creators” was an attempt at framing the debate which, I believe, backfired.  At least I’ve heard it used sarcastically on a number of occasions.

On the other hand, the phrase “right to work laws” performed beautifully.  I always call them “right to work for less laws,” but that hasn’t caught on.  The laws that Michigan and Indiana recently adopted are couched in the language of “freedom” from “mandatory dues” and from “coercive union bosses.”  The laws will bring in “new jobs” and “increase economic activity.”

Lost in the debate is that over time those laws will lower wages and decrease the power of employees to stand up to their corporate bosses.  The debate has already been framed in those three words--”right to work.”

Emma Goldman

I’ve always had a soft spot for anarchists.  I mean the old-fashioned kind who believed that local communities could govern themselves without a central government to give them orders.  Anarchism of this kind actually works.  All you need is three prerequisites.  First, a group of people who share values.  Second, a fairly rural population. (If you have sewage or garbage problems, it won’t work.)  Third, you need a rather simple and localized economic system.  If you have those three, you don’t need a central government.  Think Amish.

Which brings us to Emma Goldman.  A new book on Goldman and her lover Alexander Berkman (the man who shot but didn’t kill Henry Clay Frick) has just been published entitled Sasha and Emma.  Goldman was an excellent public speaker and an opponent of the U.S. entry into World War I, for which she was deported to Russia.  She didn’t fit in any better there, and she died in Toronto in 1940.  

She was a woman who enjoyed life to the hilt.  Her best known slogan, and one which should be remembered in this era of the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street movement, was this:  “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be in your revolution.”  

Best political quote of 2012

Mazie Hirono, Hawaii’s first woman in the U.S. Senate, was talking to a group of political supporters.  She noted that she was an Asian, an immigrant, and a Buddhist.  Somebody in the audience then asked, “Yes, but are you gay?”  Ms. Hirono replied, “Nobody’s perfect.”

Don’t you just love America?

I learned about Ms Hirono’s reply in the December 2012 issue of the Hightower Lowdown, a newsletter edited by Jim Hightower, a real live Texas liberal.  Visit Mr. Hightower’s website at <www.hightowerlowdown.org>.

San Jose State University pride

For 29 years I was a professor at San Jose State.  I taught in the Political Science, Environmental Studies, and American Studies Departments.  I enjoyed my students and my colleagues.  SJSU began as a “normal school,” educating teachers.  We were never very good in football, but we did have a track team that was at one time of Olympic caliber.  In fact, if you are old enough, you may remember the two runners at the 1968 Olympics, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who raised their clenched fists in protest to American policies on Vietnam and poverty.

Now a group of students in a sociology course succeeded in raising the minimum wage in San Jose to $10.00 an hour by using the initiative process and an incredible amount of work.  They first got the support of Cindy Chavez, leader of the Central Labor Council, and one of my former students, I am so proud to say. 

According to The Nation (December 17, 2012, pp. 4-6), San Jose is the largest city in the nation to do this.  (Yeah, San Jose is much larger than San Francisco). It will increase the annual take-home pay of minimum wage workers by $4000.  This was a result of a student-labor coalition.  I am so pleased.

Advertisement for myself

I’ve been writing articles for Carbon County Magazine for the past three years. Carbon County Magazine is a monthly on-line publication edited by my friend Al Zagofsky, who also is a freelancer for the Times News.  

My Carbon County Magazine articles tend to be less overtly political and more personal than the posts on this blog.  My persona on the magazine is that of a wise old farmer who has been around the block a few times.  Check it out--just search for Carbon County Magazine.  There’s only one.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, again

My American Studies class was team-taught, but my colleagues always allowed me to give the lecture on the rise of labor unions.  In that lecture I always discussed the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.  In March 1911 a fire erupted in a New York garment factory on the 9th, 10th, and 11th floors.  Most of the workers were young women, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants.  Management had locked the exits to prevent pilfering, and the only way out for most of the women was to jump.  Women plunged to their deaths rather than burn in the fire.  146 people died, including two girls aged 14.  That was the most people killed in a disaster in New York until the 9/11 World Trade Center horror.  

The outrage over the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire led to changes in labor laws in New York and spurred the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

Now, 101 years later, we see it repeat, this time in Ashulia, Bangladesh.  Eight stories up.  Windows blocked by grates.  Yarn stored near generators.  112 people dead from fire and smoke.  

These people were making clothes for Wal-Mart and for Sears.  Yes, you can buy cheap clothing at Wal-Mart.  Sure it saves you money.  But somebody pays.  Somebody always pays.

Our Tax Burden

Will this whining about taxes ever stop?

I will now reprint three paragraphs from an article by Benyamin Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff from the New York Times of November 30.  [And yes, that is how Benyamin spells his name.]  

...in fact, most Americans in 2010 paid far less in total taxes--federal, state and local--than they would have 30 years ago.  According to an analysis by the New York Times, the combination of all income taxes, sales taxes and property taxes took a smaller share of their income than it took from households with the same inflation-adjusted income in 1980.

Households earning more than $200,000 benefited from the largest percentage declines in total taxation as a share of income.  Middle-income households benefited, too.  More than 85 percent of households with earnings above $25,000 paid less in total taxes than comparable households in 1980.

Lower-income households, however, saved little or nothing.  Many pay no federal income taxes, but they do pay a range of other levies, like federal payroll taxes, state sales taxes and local property taxes.  Only about half of taxpaying households with incomes below $25,000 paid less less than in 2010.

Let’s step on the gas and go right over the rim of the fiscal cliff.

Rice lied about the Middle East

She said on a Sunday talk show that “high-quality aluminum tubes that are only suitable for nuclear weapons programs” were imported by Iraq and went on to say, in a memorable phrase, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”

That would be National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice, and the year was 2002.  It helped to launch a war in which thousands of American troops and even more Iraqis died.  

I don’t recall Senators McCain and Graham making any fuss about that when Condolezza Rice was promoted to Secretary of State.  Now they are trying to prevent Susan Rice from becoming President Obama’s Secretary of State because she repeated what the CIA told her about the attack on the Libyan ambassador.

The hypocrisy of these people is truly amazing.

I want to credit columnist Clarence Page for pointing out the disconnect by the Republican senators in today’s Morning Call.

Ya dance with them that brung ya

Candidate Obama ran on a platform of increasing taxes on the very wealthiest of American taxpayers.  Romney ran to either hold the line on taxes for the rich or cut them--I was never sure exactly where he stood.

Exit polls in battleground states reflected clear class divisions.  People whose annual income was under $30,000 gave Obama 63% of their vote.  In the category between $30,000 to $49,000, Obama received 57% of the vote.

Above that we get into Romney territory.  Voters with an annual income of more than $50,000 voted for Romney by 53%. 

In my view the President has not only a political obligation to the people who elected him, he has a moral obligation not to abandon them.  People on the bottom don’t give many campaign contributions.  They don’t have PACs.  They don’t have lobbyists.  They do have votes, however, and those votes should be honored.  If we have to go over the cliff for them, so be it.

Watching birds

Most birders my age have “life lists” of at least 600 birds.  Lists of over a thousand are not uncommon.  Linda’s and my list stands at 135.  We do have a rule that both of us must see the bird, which does limit us.  I can’t count the kingfisher I saw in Solano County because Linda wasn’t with me, so it really should be 136.  By any birder standard, that is pathetic.

Anyway, to improve my skills, I’m reading a paperback entitled How To Know the Birds by Roger Tory Peterson.  It’s an old book, c. 1949 and 1957.  Even if we take the 2nd date, that makes the book 55 years old.  

Here’s a quote from page 37 on geese.  “Few men have souls so dead that they will not bother to look up when they hear the barking of wild Geese.  For Geese symbolize the mystery of migration more than any other birds, and as harbingers of spring, they are second only to the Robin.”

Last night a huge flock of geese flew over.  I did look up, and they were flying from west to east.  They live here year round, because the lakes no longer freeze over.  They are harbingers all right.  They show that the effects of global warming are already here, and they warn us that things will be worse in the future.

Incidentally, some robins have also been living here year round.

Meanwhile, Tea Party types say that global climate change is a liberal hoax.  Do these people ever get outside?

Government jobs

This blog is way too partisan, but I can’t help myself.  How can I be middle-of-the-road when one side says stupid things.  Here’s an example.  “Government can’t create jobs, only private industry creates jobs.”  You probably heard Republican candidates repeat that canard during the last election.

Really?

One of the reasons we are taking so long to come out of this deep recession is because local, state, and national governments have laid off so many government workers.  Whether you get your paycheck from a private company or a government agency, you have a job.  And yes, government does create many of those jobs.

Epidemiologists, park rangers, sailors, soldiers, teachers, police officers, TSA personnel, game wardens, FBI agents, firefighters, members of Congress (like Paul Ryan), state store clerks, astronauts, lock tenders on the Intracoastal waterway, air traffic controllers--you get the idea.  

Government jobs are crucial in education, environmental protection, defense, public health, and public safety.  Private enterprise doesn’t fill the need.  To say that government does not create jobs betrays a myopia that is astounding.

Mellow and Brennan

I’m never upset when I read about a Republican legislator who took a bribe or misused staff.  That’s the other team.  That’s not us.

What upsets me is when somebody on my team acts illegally or immorally.  If a Democratic legislator misuses government funds, he or she is not only breaking the law, he or she is betraying our trust and our faith. 

Today Robert Mellow, former leader of Pennsylvania’s Senate Democrats was sentenced to 16 months in prison.  He said he was “...embarrassed and ...ashamed...and very very sorry.”   He used his staff to do political work to advance his own career.  This is one of our guys.  Our guys aren’t supposed to do that.  Go to jail Mr. Mellow.

I’m even more upset about former Democratic State Representative Joe Brennan.  Brennan, who was arrested this past summer for drunken driving and for punching and choking his wife, dropped out of his reelection bid in October.  Now the House Democratic Caucus has given this wife-beating son-of-a-bitch a job as a research analyst for the Legislative Policy and Research Office of the House Democratic Caucus.  He’ll be making $72,000 a year.

No wonder voters get cynical.  No wonder people hate politicians.  And this is being done by my side.

Support Texas Secession

There’s a movement in Texas to secede from the union.  This is a cause I can fully support.

No more will Dallas be able to call itself “America’s Team.”

No longer will we have to listen to tales about the brave defenders of the Alamo, whose basic goal was to change the laws of Mexico that forbade slavery.

No more will Texas drain off federal dollars.  That’s right.  Unlike Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, Texas receives more federal dollars than it contributes.

We’ll lose a “red state.”  That’s ok with me.  I’m tired of those blowhards.  I will miss Austin and El Paso and San Antonio, but it sure will be nice to say goodbye to Waco and Midland and Lubbock and Dallas.

The downside is that we’ll have to redo the flag, but perhaps we can replace Texas with Puerto Rico.  That strikes me as a really good trade-off.

Pork chops with a side of bacteria

For years pork and beef producers have been lacing their animal feed with antibiotics.  The antibiotics improve weight gain which translates into increased profits.  For years warnings have been issued that the antibiotics in the feed would have negative consequences.  Agribusiness scoffed and also resisted any effort to label meat that came from animals fed antibiotics.

Buried at the bottom of page 23 of the Morning Call today was an article entitled ”Report:  Bacteria prevalent in pork.”  The article stated that the magazine Consumer Reports tested 148 samples of pork chops and 50 samples of ground pork from a variety of stores in six American cities.  

The bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica was found in 69% of the samples.  I never heard of it, but it is said to make 100,000 Americans, many of them children, sick each year.  And 69% of the bacteria samples discovered were resistant to at least one of the commonly prescribed antibiotics.

My best advice, since we aren’t going to overcome the pork and beef lobbyists, is to buy your pork and beef from local butchers.  Ask them if their products come from animals fed with antibiotics.  If they don’t know, don’t buy the meat.  

Not a scientist, man

The best estimate of the earth’s age, based on the latest scientific research, is about 4.5 billion years old.  The figure is based on radiometric dating of meteorites.  

Marco Rubio, possible Republican presidential candidate, was asked by a GQ magazine interviewer:  “How old do you think the earth is.?”

I will now quote Rubio’s answer as found in the Science section of the New York Times yesterday.  

     I’m not a scientist, man.  I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians.

     At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created, and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all.  I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says.
     Whether the earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that.  It’s one of the great mysteries.

The great mystery is why an intelligent (?) man would equate a Biblical story of creation with the latest scientific evidence.  Why do Republican leaders continue to degrade scientific research relating to global climate change, human reproduction, evolution, and pollution?  It really is the stupid party.

The power of gerrymandering

Billy O’Gurek, Chairman of the Carbon County Democratic Party, spoke about the November election at the CCDC meeting tonight in Jim Thorpe.  In the course of his analysis, he noted that in all the races for seats in the House of Representatives, the Democrats received hundreds of thousands more votes than the Republicans but only won 200 of the 435 seats.

In Pennsylvania the cumulative total for Democratic candidates was approximately 75,000 higher than the total for their Republican opponents, yet the Republicans won 13 seats; the Democrats won 5.  That is what a gerrymander does.  The next time you hear some Republican go on about voter fraud, mention the gerrymander.  That’s real fraud.   

Republican Lesbians

Today’s New York Times ran an article by Sarah Wheaton entitled “Republican and Lesbian, and Fighting for Acceptance of Both Identities.”  The article discussed the efforts of Sarah Longwell, a Log Cabin Republican, to win acceptance of gays by the Republican Party. 

The article notes that many of the conservative gays came out late in life.  Some of them are religious.  They want the party to be more accepting. 

Here’s my message to gay Republicans.  The Republican Party doesn’t want you.  They think you are evil.  The Democrats do want you.  We think your sexual orientation is not a government issue.  If you want to marry your significant other, we think you should have that right.  We like you.  Forget those right-wing creeps who degrade you, demean you, and castigate you.  Come on over to the party that welcomes you.  Re-register as a Democrat.  It’s an easy choice to make. 

President Morsi and George Washington

It is so difficult for a country to transition from a dictatorship to a democracy.  There are no examples to follow, no guidelines, no traditions.  The give and take, the necessary compromises, the willingness to accept one’s opponents as a loyal opposition rather than enemies--that doesn’t come easy to people in power. I had great hopes for President Morsi of Egypt.  He seemed like a reasonable man.  Now he has gutted the Egyptian court system, and Egypt is on the verge of civil war.  

He says he is doing this to insure democracy in Egypt.  I’m dubious.  Once again I appreciate what an amazing man George Washington was.  He could have been a king.  He could have been a dictator. Instead, he retired to his plantation, giving up his power voluntarily.  The United States was so fortunate to have him as our first President.

The Democratic Information Center

It is difficult for me to imagine how the Democratic campaigns would have functioned in Carbon County without the Headquarters on First Street in Lehighton.  Adam, the Rabenold campaign manager, had a portion of the headquarters all to himself, and he was there almost every day.  Matt Cartwright, our new congressman from this area, ran phone banks out of the office.  Voter registration drives used the office as the staging area.  Robin, our Obama campaign honcho, was in the office on a daily basis, and over a hundred Obama volunteers worked out of the office, making phone calls, canvassing, and running a major GOTV operation.

Some of us couldn’t bear to let the lease on the office lapse.  A group of Carbon County Democrats decided to fund the office for the next year.  Since the County Party is no longer the responsible tenant, we had to make some adjustments.  The office will be rented by the Community Outreach Association.  It will be called the Democratic Information Center.  It will serve as the county headquarters for volunteer recruitment, voter registration, and staging area for direct action.  

Romney won this county.  So did Heffley.  That will be the last time a Republican wins Carbon County.  We will turn this county around.

The Wal-Mart Demonstration

I’m not sure why we had to start at 8 a.m.  Why not from 10 a.m. to noon?  It is difficult for me to get up when it’s dark outside.

Anyway we did it, meeting at the Stroudsburg Wal-Mart.  The man in charge was from the Monroe-Pike Labor Chapter.  Linda and I represented the Carbon County Labor Chapter.  In all, about 15 demonstrators showed up, mostly from SEIU and UFCW.

We decided to stand at the entrance of Wal-Mart until we were asked to leave.  We were there about 20 minutes when a cop showed up and told us that if we didn’t leave we would be arrested.  We were holding signs and passing out fliers asking the customers to tell management they wanted better treatment for Wal-Mart employees, and we were getting positive response.  Since none of us wanted to get arrested, we moved to the sidewalk.  While we got a lot of good feedback (honking horns, fists in the air, thumbs up), we were not able to pass out the explanatory leaflets.

I was expecting a large crowd, given that it was “Black Friday,” but I was surprised to find only about 1/4 of the parking lot was full.  Perhaps everyone went out on Thursday evening.

About 9:30 I really had to pee, so I went into the store and found the toilet.  My record of never having bought anything from a Wal-Mart still stands, but now I have peed in one.

What did we accomplish?  I think just about everyone in America knows that Wal-Mart is a lousy employer.  Our chant said it all:  “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Corporate greed has got to go!”  

Black Thursday

One of the disturbing trends in the U.S. today is the willingness of the companies to sacrifice their employees in the pursuit of ever higher profits.  

I am very much aware that Thanksgiving is a day when families join together.  They eat, drink, and probably watch too much television, but it is a family holiday.

Now we have stores, especially large chain stores, opening on Thanksgiving.  Who staffs those stores?  I can tell you that it isn’t the stockholders or the bosses.  The sales people who must work today are among the lowest paid employees in America.  They are usually non-union, lack good health care plans, have little if any retirement plans, often are part-time, and have no job security.  And now they can’t celebrate this holiday with their families.

If nobody shopped on Thanksgiving, the practice of “Black Thursday” would end.  But, as Linda pointed out to me, Americans seem to be concerned with one thing only--the price.  If they can get a lower price on an item, they don’t care if it is made in China, or is bad for the environment, or hurts small businesses, or harms workers.  Price seems to be everything, and I will bet that the stores that opened on Thursday were full of shoppers.  Just don’t expect to see me there.

Lincoln

Tonight we saw "Lincoln," and I give it four stars and two thumbs up.  The acting is superb, and the story of how the 13th Amendment came to be adopted was a nail biter.  It's one of those films where you know how it will end, but you are fascinated by how we get to that point.

The viewer also realizes that principled politicians can temporize their principles in the name of the greater good, and that it is sometimes necessary to do sleazy things to achieve a worthy goal.  Occasionally the ends really do justify the means.  The trick is to know when that's the case. 

Whoops

Last night I noted that the NLRB usually takes weeks, if not months, to rule on a complaint.  Today, in an article in the Business Section of the Times, reporter Steven Greenhouse said that the NLRB will be ruling in a FEW DAYS on whether the picketing planned for various Wal-Marts on Friday is legal. 

Last night I also made a crack about readers coming up with bail money in case Linda and I are arrested on Friday morning.  If the NLRB does rule that the action is illegal, my glib attempt at humor doesn't seem so funny.

On the other hand, I am also a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.  I believe that I have a First Amendment right to hold up a sign in front of a store criticizing that store's labor policies.  We'll see.

Wal-Mart Action

On Friday, November 23, Linda and I are driving to Stroudsburg to participate in an informational picket in front of the Stroudsburg Wal-Mart. “Black Friday” seems like an excellent time to tell people just how Wal-Mart mistreats its employees.

The informational picket is being organized by a group called OUR Wal-Mart.  In the past Wal-Mart has strongly resisted any efforts to unionize any store (except in China).  Usually the company, the largest employer in the U.S., has brushed off any union action, but this time Wal-Mart has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which I see as a indicator that Wal-Mart is concerned.  

Wal-Mart knows that the NLRB takes months to rule on complaints, but this is the company’s way to warn any “associates” (Wal-Mart speak for underpaid workers) that they will be in trouble if they participate in actions not approved by the company.  Wal-Mart has also threatened arrests of people in front of its stores.  If Linda and I are arrested, I expect my readers to start a bail fund.

OUR Wal-Mart stands for Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart. I probably mentioned this before, but I have NEVER bought anything at a Wal-Mart. 

Local farm subsidies

The Environmental Working Group, using the Freedom of Information Act, has developed a list of farmers and the federal subsidies they received.  Among its findings were that 23 members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, received $6.1 million in federal farm subsidies from 1995 to 2011.  [Note to budget cutters:  this might be a good place to start.]

If you’d like to see the amount of subsidies to your local farmers, go to <www.ewg.org/farmsubsidies>.  Click on “U.S. Farm Subsidy Database” on the right side menu.  Then type in your zip code and be prepared to be amazed.

A surprising thing about the gay vote

In a close election almost any group can claim to have put the candidate over the top.  Without the black vote, or the women’s vote, or the labor union vote, or the youth vote, or the Latino vote, Obama would have lost.  Here’s another group to thank.  Straight people split their vote about 50-50.  However, according to an article by Micah Cohen in today’s Times, voters who identified themselves as gay, went for Obama 76% to 22%.

Here’s the surprising thing.  Why would 22% of self-identified gays vote for Romney?  Don’t they read the papers?  Don’t they have internet access?  Over one-fifth of the gay vote makes no damn sense whatsoever.  

While I’m on the subject, why would 7% of the black vote go for Romney?  Why would 45% of the voters in Weissport vote for a candidate who obviously holds them in contempt?  People, people--wise up.

Emails

I refuse to read or watch anything about General Petraeus, but I do know that the “scandal” began with emails sent by his biographer to another woman.  

Today I read in the Morning Call (page 9) about emails from Jesse White, a Washington County Democratic state legislator who supported the natural gas industry.  He solicited funds and even a ride to the Superbowl from Range Resources, a Marcellus Shale drilling company.  Evidently Rep. White, disappointed in the lack of funding from the Range Resources, then became a critic of the the gas industry.  Irritated by the turnaround, the company released the earlier emails, much to White’s embarrassment.

When you send an email, think to yourself:  How would this look on the front page of my local newspaper?  How would this look on the 6 p.m news?  

In my own case, I sent what I thought was a private email to the editor of the Times News, only to see it in print the following week in the Letters to the Editor column.  Lesson learned.

Obama's academic "dream team"

Canvassers for Obama were supposed to ask supporters to sign a “Commit to Vote” card.  The card, the size of a postcard, had space for the address and a statement that the person would be voting for Obama in November.  Obama’s picture was on the front of the card.

I didn’t like the cards at all.  I did have some voters sign them, but it was awkward for me.  The voter had just told me he or she would be voting for Obama, and asking him or her to sign the card felt like I was saying I didn’t quite believe them--would they sign this pledge reaffirming what they had just told me. 

Since then I have learned (in an article in the Science section of yesterday’s Times) that the Obama campaign had a “dream team” of social scientists giving advice on ads and scripts.  The purpose of the commitment card was to firm up the person’s decision to vote for Obama.  

When we asked people what time they planned to vote on election day, that too was a psychological push to get them thinking about a plan to vote.  People are more likely to do something when they have a plan.  The team originated all sorts of similar ideas and strategies.

The team included economists and social science professors from UCLA, Princeton, UC San Diego, Arizona State, University of Chicago Business School, and Columbia.  

Romney had no similar group, although he did have Billy Graham.

Why Obama won Pennsylvania

You sometimes here that Pennsylvania was not a swing state, and neither campaign paid any attention to Pennsylvania.  I checked my diary, and Sarah, our first Obama organizer, moved in with Linda and me on March 20.  She was responsible for Carbon, Monroe, Pike, and Wayne counties.  She later was assigned to Monroe and Pike only, and Emilio, our new organizer, was responsible for Carbon and Luzerne.  When he in turn was tasked with Luzerne only, Carbon received its very own organizer, Robin from Illinois.

After the campaign was over, Robin asked if I could burn the records from Carbon and Monroe counties.  There were two pickup truckloads of canvass lists, call lists, turf maps, lit drop material, scripts for phase one, phase two, persuasion call scripts, commitment cards, recruitment scripts, GOTV scripts, door hangers--and thousands and thousands of names with little check-marks and circles, all which had been entered into the data bank.

It wasn’t by chance that Romney lost this state.  The Obama campaign made it happen.

Participatory democracy

In an article on the presidential campaigns in The New York Times before the election, the Obama campaign organization was said to be “militaristic.”  Orders came down and we followed them.  Occasionally those orders did not fit the local conditions and caused some grousing, but overall the campaign was brilliant.  

Unfortunately, much of the organization may be dismantled.  The lists of phone bankers and canvassers and the voter data are dumped. The volunteers, who have what sociologists call “weak ties,” may drift off and lose contact with one another.

In a recent book entitled Taking Our Country Back, which details how the Dean and Kerry campaigns and Dean as national chair revolutionized the use of the internet and social media, the author wrote that the new media campaigns:

“...are not designed for the ends of psychological growth, the development of civic skills, discovery of the public interest, achieving democratic legitimacy, or community building--claims historically made for increased participation in civic life.”   

“Despite predictions to the contrary, the book shows that the use of new media in campaigning has seemingly not brought about fundamental changes in...forms of political representation, quality of democratic conversation, or distribution of power in the American polity.” 

That’s something we will have to work on at the local level.

Mormons and Democrats

The founder of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith, received from the Angel Moroni a golden tablet with an incomprehensible script, which Smith was able to  translate with the help of a “Seek Stone.”  The tablet then disappeared.  The translation is now known as the Book of Mormon.  Smith, who had earlier been arrested for fraud, learned that American Indians were descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel which arrived here from the Middle East by ship.  He wrote down details of a great battle in upstate New York between two groups of descendants of the lost tribe.  He also learned that the Garden of Eden was located in Jackson County, Missouri.

Brigham Young, who led the Mormons to Utah, had further revelations, and, if I am not mistaken, over 50 wives.  Mitt Romney’s grandfather, who had a number of wives, moved to Mexico, which at that time was more receptive to polygamy than the American authorities. 

I may be shaky on a few of the details, but I think I am generally correct so far.

None of this was raised in the campaign.  President Obama and the Democrats never questioned whether Romney’s beliefs would affect his style of governing or impinge on his decision-making process.

Now, imagine if the Democrats had nominated a Mormon to run for President.  Do you think the Republicans would have raised the specter of a Mormon president in the White House?  Would Super Pacs have saturated the airwaves with discussions of weird Mormon theology?  Would the strange history of Mormonism been front and center in the Republican campaign?  Of course it would have.  We really are the good guys.

Maybe Pennsylvania isn't so bad

Earlier this week I criticized Pennsylvania’s election laws.  I placed the state on the very bottom.  Perhaps I was too hasty.  

It took days for Florida to decide that Obama had won the state, and a congressional race is not yet decided.

Arizona may be even worse.  As of today, in a state with fewer than 4 million voters, approximately 500,000 votes have yet to be counted.  That is 1/8 of the state’s voters.

Why is this so difficult?  Other democracies do this.  Why can’t we?